www.lightingandsoundamerica.com October 2009 Lighting & Sound America $10.00 Breaking News: The PLASA-ESTA merger Concerts: October 2009 Volume 6 Issue 10 October 2009 Volume Styx/REO Speedwagon Special Events: U2 “The tour lays down a The Eiffel Tower turns 120 gauntlet for the industry” ALSO: Zero 88’s ORB Wireless Solution Sweden Rusty Brutsché’s career of innovations QLab in Central Park www.lightingandsoundamerica.com 088_LSA_E3 FINAL TO SCOTT.qxp:LSA template 9/30/09 3:13 PM Page 88 TECHNICAL FOCUS: AUDIO/VIDEO The Sony booth. Inside E3 Creative Technology provides audio and video on and off the trade show floor When the last attendee of Electronic 2-4, has been the one-stop wow-shop The heart of any E3 Expo is on the Entertainment Expo 2009 (E3) left the for gamers, programmers, manufactur- conference center floor, where fans Los Angeles Convention Center, ers, and journalists since 1995. It is pile into booths showcasing the next Creative Technology Group (CT) where some of the most noteworthy generation of gaming. E3 2009 boast- staffers took a deep breath. Video gaming industry innovations have ed 216 exhibitors, all trying to capture and audio pros from the company’s been announced, from Sony’s the attention of more than 41,000 offices worldwide had spent the pre- PlayStation 3 to Nintendo’s Wii. attendees from 78 countries. vious 10 days creating, programming, Indeed, E3 could be considered the CT has a long history at the E3 and building some of the dynamic launching pad for careers of thou- Expo, yet this year’s event featured press events and booths for Sony, sands of designers, programmers, and one of the company’s largest pres- Nintendo, Microsoft, MTV, Capcom, engineers from around the world. (See ences, with teams from CT Los and Square Enix. last month’s issue for a report on the Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and E3, which, this year, ran from June Xbox briefing at E3.) London on hand. “We provided the 88 • October 2009 • Lighting&Sound America 088_LSA_E3 FINAL TO SCOTT.qxp:LSA template 9/30/09 12:29 PM Page 89 bulk of the technology used in many of the big, impressive booths,” says John Van Diver, CT Los Angeles business development manager. “Because we own the gear and keep it in top oper- ating condition, we are able to help our clients deliver one-of-a-kind, flaw- less presentations. Our clients don’t want to be experiments. They want to know what’s going to happen and that we can get it done.” This statement was most obvious at the press events serviced by the company. “Sony press events tend to be a little more involved, because peo- ple expect it, and because the compa- ny is such a huge brand,” says CT’s San Francisco project manager, Gerry Platt. “They have to have the biggest, The Capcom booth. baddest trade show booth, and the ultimate press event that’s over and above what anybody else had the cre- ative resources to do.” Sony at the Shrine This year’s Sony press event was held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles; it featured a stage backdrop that included a 34' x 70' center screen bracketed by 34' tall outer towers; the latter were curved so that the image felt as if it was flowing over the audience; it also bowed out at the bottom. “Our biggest chal- lenge, given the complex surface, was creating a seamless image,” says Platt. To accomplish this on the The Nintendo booth. center screen, the CT team utilized a blend of four Barco FLM HD20 pro- jectors placed side by side. Barco Encore 3/E HD-SDI processors were used to smooth the blended area. The outer towers were covered using two FLM HD18s per side. Overcoming the side-by-side place- ment of the projectors took a little technical know-how, but what also helped the crew was the choice of Coolux Pandoras Box server technolo- gy, because the center image was stitched together from four separate servers going to eight projectors. “The programmers had to apply it as one big canvas, and were able to use the morphing software to create areas All photos: Courtesy of Creative Technology Group All photos: Courtesy of Creative Technology where the horizontal and vertical The Nintendo press event. www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • October 2009 • 89 088_LSA_E3 FINAL TO SCOTT.qxp:LSA template 9/30/09 12:30 PM Page 90 TECHNICAL FOCUS: AUDIO/VIDEO subs were added for low end; a pair of Galileos, Meyer’s loudspeaker man- agement system, controlled the speak- ers via Wi-Fi. To ensure he had proper coverage, Nealie added six Meyer M1D loudspeakers for front fill. “I took some of the signal from the left and right channels and placed it in the center, because of the width of the space and because part of the PA was covered by scenery,” Nealie says. “I didn’t modify the hang of the system, except for moving the center cluster 25' downstage, because I didn’t want the speakers to be upstage of the pre- senters with microphones.” The Playstation booth. On the floor When it came to working on the con- vention floor, CT staffers put together some of the most talked-about booths. The Nintendo booth was interesting because of its simplicity and focus on ambiance over oomph. “Nintendo has done many things in the past,” reports CT San Francisco project manager Jolyon Beliz, “but, this year, it was all about the atmos- phere. There wasn’t a big stage. It wasn’t in your face. We placed a lot of LEDs over a large portion of the booth, spaced them out, and worked with a lot of fabric and signage. We set a mood for people to come in, enjoy, and play the games, rather than com- The Square Enix booth. ing in and seeing a show.” The booth boasted 160 panels of planes could be bent,” says Platt. In window in the sweet spot.” Martin LC Series 40mm LED, hung addition to the warping on the soft- CT also had to ensure that the vertically. The Martin panels were ware end, there was a bit of smooth- audio system delivered, as well. That selected for two reasons. “They are a ing at the projection end. responsibility fell to director of audio low-resolution LED, so it’s a cost- There was also a 16' x 24' screen services William Nealie, who had to effective product, but they look quite that flew in and out on a traveler for manage 24 inputs from the multiple nice,” Beliz says. “Also, this was the demo elements and playback. “We did video sources and backups, 18 solution that enabled us to rig vertical- a lot of PIPing, where we PIPed play- PlayStation 3 devices, and 12 wireless ly; because the frame structure was back onto the large canvas of the set, microphones. Nealie utilized the strong enough to attach I-bolts to that to create this huge projection surface Digidesign VENUE console to manage we could clip right onto.” for eye candy and wallpaper, and also the 60 inputs, and had a pair of stage The work of assembling and testing for background elements and show racks to handle up to 96 inputs. the panels started before the window- elements,” says Platt, who singles out Nealie also made use of the Meyer of-install opportunity opened. That CT’s projectionist team. “They did a Sound system that is installed at the proved to be crucial, since the team great job creating a really tight projec- Shrine, which includes two arrays of only had two-and-a-half days to put tion image across the whole canvas, 16 MICA cabinets, a pair of center the whole booth together. “We had to so, in the design process, our client at arrays of 10 M1Ds each, eight M1Ds get it set up before anyone else could [the design firm] Stun Gun felt pretty at the stage edge for front fill, and 18 start working the booth,” Beliz says, confident about landing a projection more under the balcony. Eight 700-HP “so we had to get the panels up quick- 90 • October 2009 • Lighting&Sound America 088_LSA_E3 FINAL TO SCOTT.qxp:LSA template 9/30/09 12:32 PM Page 91 ly. We had six walls to do the first day, twenty-two 46" 1080p LCD monitors mute, respectively, at certain points which we managed to get done in were all that was provided. It was the within the graphics loop. “We took the about eight hours.” audio, he comments that caused more SMPTE time code out from the com- In addition to the LED, the booth of a challenge, since the booth was a puter and used it to control the lighting featured a one-hundred-and-three- rectangle with the LED screen right in console and the audio mixer. They did- inch 1920 x 1080 HD plasma screen. the middle, with ten conference rooms n’t want a tech to do it,” he adds. The media was delivered via a Concise tucked behind it. The client called for “They wanted it all automated.” Watchout computer running 1024 x big sound in front of the screen—and Perhaps one of the most talked- 768 output. “We were able to work minimized behind it, as much as pos- about booths on the floor was the closely with Video Arts, the video edi- sible. To answer the challenge, Van MTV Theatre, where Harmonix tors, and with producer Ralph Miller, to Diver used Meyer’s Galileo to manage debuted The Beatles: Rock Band.